The Perfect Cut with Chef Adrian Richardson

I’ve always been inquisitive, even since a very young age. I’d get in my mum’s way in the kitchen while I try to peek into the frying pan and pry some of her kitchen secrets. It is a shame that the little chef in me always got dismissed from her hectic kitchen.

A quarter of a century later, my inquisitiveness hasn’t muted, and I’m still fascinated by the alchemical wonders that take place in the kitchen. While many of us would like to think our own mothers to be among the best cooks in the world, I’ve given in to a different reality.

It was as if a dream that I had awaken into chef Adrian Richardson’s kitchen. It was surreal; partially because the head chef of La Luna (only one of Melbourne’s best Mediterranean bistros) was about to prepare a meal for me; and partially because for once, I wasn’t being chased out of the kitchen.

"When it comes to olive oil, we could all use an extra virgin."

Being a regular face on television, and with his multi-ethnic background, one would expect chef Adrian Richardson to conjure up fancy, almost intimidating meals; but quite contrary. The good chef is extremely proud of his heritage and his Australian meat , while humble in his cooking style.

The good chef begins his demonstration not by trying too hard to impress; he instead tosses up a familiar dish which requires no fancy skills or ingredients. Sauteed squid with spinach – a testament that great meals can come from simply heating up a wok, tossing in a few simple ingredients, and not overthinking things.

While great meal can be accomplished with simple cooking, that does not mean that one should be stripped of the joy of indulging in the intricate. Chef Adrian Richardson’s lamb and spinach filo pie with labne is a complex delivery of flavors and textures, delivered in perfection through his experience and skill. The savory aroma of lamb imbued with herbs and spices, the puffy light filo pastry, and the bed of strained yoghurt presented a spectrum of flavors and textures onto a single platter. From savory to sour, fluffy to creamy, subtle to aromatic, chef Adrian Richardson’s pie delivers a multitude of sensations in a single puffy package.

It’s a crying shame that most of the sausages I’ve eaten in my life come frozen in packets of ten and has more mystery fillers than actual meat. Chef Adrian Richardson completely inverted my initial experience of sausage with my most recent, which he served up freshly made. It had never occurred to me that one can actually make their own sausages at home. Chef Adrian Richardson proclaims that it’s a beautiful thing to kill an animal, grind it up, and stuff it into its own intestine linings. Though the whole idea borders on gruesome, I’d like to think it actually dignifies the animal’s death when you make full use of it; and the good chef would agree. Whatever your sentiments are on the matter, you’d soon forget once you’ve had a taste of the Merguez sausage. Aromatic and piquantly savory, the exciting flavors settle smoothly into the little bed of aoili (which is essentially mashed potatoes with added egg yolks). While couscous is traditionally eaten in North Africa with Merguez sausages, chef Adrian Richardson’s rendition of tabbouleh which adopts couscous as its main ingredient alongside chopped parsley, onions, tomatoes, mint leaves, lemon juice and olive oil makes for a great salad for added dimension of both texture and flavor.

"You can't go wrong with a really good piece of Australian beef."

I would liken a chef to a trapezist, and a steak to a trapeze – the sauce is just a safety net. If a chef is very sure about his steak, he would surely at least consider serving it without any sauce. While some might say it’s best to be safe, I stand by the idea that it is better to amaze and impress by defying prudence. While it may be true that a decent steak tastes better with a sauce done well, a great steak is robbed of its most defining characteristics when served with any condiment but its own juices. While there is and always will be opposing schools of thought on the matter, it goes without question that chef Adrian Richardson serves very good steak, made from the finest Australian tenderloin.

Chef Adrian Richardson serves up the perfect cut.

Chef Adrian Richardson demonstrates that cooking a good steak isn’t rocket science and doesn’t require any fancy methods or lavish ingredients, and I’m left wondering why I’ve never in my whole life (being the meat-lover that I am) never tasted steak quite like what the good chef has served. Lean – my favourite cut – yet almost defiantly tender and offers almost no resistance against my steak knife. Chunky, meaty texture, without too much of a chew, the tenderloin collapses between the grinding of my teeth, oozing out pleasantly startling flavors that I never knew could come from a simple slab of lean meat that had been seasoned with nothing more than salt, pepper, and extra virgin olive oil. I now fear that every future steak experience will be forced to live up to such astronomically high standards or fall into disappointment.

While it is virtually a once in a lifetime experience to be served food that is worthy to be dubbed a testament of a celebrity chef’s best offerings, I am only slightly disappointed that I will probably never be served a meal by chef Adrian Richardson ever again. Through his perfectionism encapsulated in a vessel of practicality, I believe I can replicate this experience in my own kitchen. All I need to do is ensure that I don’t cut corners in my choice of ingredients and preparation. Some day (soon?), I will do it; and as surely as this eventuality will come, I will also be able to be continually inspired and enriched by chef Adrian Richardson’s offerings through his television show Good Chef, Bad Chef on the Asian Food Channel (Astro channel 703).